John Wilkes Booth

Was a well known actor from a nationally celebrated American acting family. John Wilkes Booth, in his last "performance" onstage, was in his own eyes an avenging representative of southern independence. Booth truly believed that he was killing a tyrant. Although the greater percentage of people in the newly unified United States after the war believed Abraham Lincoln went to Heaven and Booth went to the infernal regions, there was a lesser percentage that truly believed and hoped that the opposite occurred. Booth's act arguably unified the Nation and immortalized Abraham Lincoln for generations to come.